NSW teachers campaign to break Labor’s pay cap
NSW TEACHERS are still seeking a salary raise of 5 per cent or more and an end to restrictions on transfers. The October state council meeting of the New...
Queensland public sector workers fight pay offer
PUBLIC SECTOR workers rallied in Brisbane on September 30 to protest over the state government’s paltry 3.25 per cent wage offer. Over 3000 workers participated in the rally.
It was...
Action can stop job cuts at Melbourne Uni
A COLD, wind-swept day did not stop over 120 Melbourne Uni staff and students joining a protest against university management’s plan to sack 20 academics in the arts faculty....
Does NSW really face a budget crisis?
ALMOST THE first words uttered by the new premier Nathan Rees were along the lines of “I’ve been briefed by Treasury. It’s worse than I thought. We could lose...
Alice Springs opposes uranium exploration
On October 5 a community protest gathering of over 300 people was held in Alice Springs to voice opposition and outrage at the Northern Territory government’s consent to uranium...
Blow to Telstra’s plans for non-union agreement
WORKERS AT Telstra have voted to reject the collective non-union agreement the company was trying to force on them. This is a major defeat for Telstra’s efforts to cut...
Drop the charges against Lex Wotton
ON OCTOBER 6 Palm Island man Lex Wotton faced the Supreme Court in Queensland. He is charged with “riot involving damage or destruction of property”. If convicted he faces...
Garnaut climate plan to suit big business
IN HIS final report to the government, Professor Ross Garnaut echoes the calls from industry to abolish the one measure the Rudd government has in place that will actually...
Melbourne terror trial fuels Islamophobia
As the banners telling us “History is coming!” went up all over Melbourne getting ready for the AFL grand final, the verdicts came down in the trial of the...
Barwon 12 trial: in the words of the defence consel
“We’ve seen an airbrushing, a re-write of history”
“The crown has presented a selected and distorted picture”
“The ‘war on terror’ has been used by politicians. The innocent (like...
Revolt of the rich escalates in Bolivia
A WAVE of violence by right-wing paramilitaries in Bolivia left at least 30 people dead and government buildings ransacked across the country’s eastern provinces.
The violence is the result of...
Support for US war resisters grows in Canada
IRAQ WAR resisters in Canada received an important victory in late September. On September 22 Jeremy Hinzman and his family successfully appealed their deportation order. The family was scheduled...
Deal between Zimbabwe’s elites will not end the crisis
IN JULY reaffirmed our long-held position of the likelihood “of an elite political settlement between the ruling party and opposition around a western supported full neoliberal economic programme”....
‘Afghanistan is becoming like Iraq’
Academic and author Elaheh Rostami-Povey visited Sydney recently, speaking on her research in Afghanistan under the US-led occupation. Below we reprint part of a speech she gave
I HAVE been...
Afghanistan death toll soaring
THIS IS shaping up to be the bloodiest year on record since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began in 2001.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan recorded a total of...
Changes to intervention won’t end paternalist approach
THE REVIEW into the intervention in the Northern Territory, released in mid-October, has called for an end to blanket welfare quarantining and suggested the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination...
Selective quarantining tried in Queensland
WHILE THE restoration of the RDA would force some changes to the Northern Territory welfare quarantine legislation, it is likely that these would be modelled on the Queensland intervention...
Converging against intervention in Alice
OVER 200 people from around Australia travelled to join hundreds more from the NT in a protest convergence against the NT intervention in Mparntwe-Alice Springs from September 29 to...
Why is the world economy in meltdown?
With the US economy in tatters, questions are being raised about what caused the crisis and what it will mean for people around the world. Feiyi Zhang looks at...
Can China protect Australia from the economic crisis?
Kevin Rudd and many in the mainstream press once said that Australia’s economic relationship with China would provide a cushion in the current economic crisis. Tom Barnes examines the...
Before abortion rights were won
Review: The Racket
By Gideon Haigh, Melbourne University Publishing, $34.95
WHILE NEW legislation to decriminalise abortion is debated in the Victorian parliament, influential priests and some politicians continue their crusade to...
A graphic and haunting soldier’s tale
Review: Waltz With Bashir
Directed by Ari Folman, Limited cinema release
ARI FOLMAN was only 19 when he was conscripted as part of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which installed...
Things they say–economic crisis special
“If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down”
George W. Bush on the US financial system during the market crisis negotiations
“It’s not based on any particular...
Fight needed to win real work rights
FURTHER DETAILS about Labor’s new IR laws confirm that the new government will retain the bulk of WorkChoices. Legislation will be introduced into parliament before the end of the...
A fresh look at America’s urban decay
Review: The Wire
WHEN US presidential candidate Barack Obama was asked his favourite TV show and character, his answers were The Wire and Omar Little (more on him later).
Don’t be...
